Federal Court Blocks Florida’s Drag Ban as Attempt to ‘Suppress Speech’ by Performers

federal court temporarily stopped floridawarned of the controversial restrictions on drug performance that the law is too broad and risks infringing on free speech.

SB1438 method, signed in may To Republican Party governor Ron DeSantisis “dangerously susceptible to broad enforcement without standards that could effectively wipe out protected speech,” said U.S. Judge Gregory Presnell. I have written in his judgment.

Far from being a neutral attempt to protect children, as advocates sometimes argue, the law was found to be an attempt to “particularly suppress speech by drag queen performers,” Presnell wrote. .

The governor’s office told Reuters the ruling was “totally wrong.”

“Of course, it is constitutional to prevent the sexual objectification of children by restricting adult access to live performances,” said spokesperson Jeremy Redfern. Said.

The lawsuit against the state comes from Hamburger Mary’s, a restaurant chain featuring family-friendly drag performances.

The Orlando restaurant franchise filed a lawsuit in May.

The law, which criminalizes restaurants for admitting children to “live adult performances,” “explicitly restricts or discourages speech and expression protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” claimed to be.

“This bill has nothing to do with children, it has everything to do with the continued suppression of the LGBTQ+ community.” Orlando of Hamburger Mary wrote in a Facebook post:.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people an important part of his agendagender-affirming care, transgender protection in schools, and signing legislation to limit access to youth education on gender and sexuality.

A court earlier this month struck down Florida’s rules and statutes that barred Medicaid payments for transgender health care and blocked portions of state law barring people under the age of 18 from obtaining gender-affecting drugs.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in Tennessee said: Declared It said the state’s drug ban was “unconstitutional, vague and substantially too broad.”

“There is no doubt that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” wrote Justice Thomas Parker.

“However, there is a difference between material that is ‘obscene’ in the local language and material that is ‘obscene’ under the law.”

“Briefly, no Supreme Court majority has held that sexually explicit (but not obscene) speech is less protected than political, artistic, or scientific speech.”